Finnentrop station is a railway junction on the

Ruhr–Sieg railway The Ruhr–Sieg railway is a 106 km long double-track, electrified main line from Hagen to Siegen via Iserlohn-Letmathe, Finnentrop and Kreuztal in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The line, which has many tunnels, runs primarily ...

between

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

and

Siegen Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly sho ...

in the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

. The station is located on the territory of the municipality of

Finnentrop Finnentrop is a ''Gemeinde'' (municipality) in Olpe district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Finnentrop is situated in the Sauerland, near the forks of the rivers Bigge and Lenne. Finnentrop shares borders with Sundern and Eslo ...

in the district of Olpe. The

Bigge Valley Railway Bigge may refer to: People * Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham (1849–1931), British officer and Royal Private Secretary * Charles William Bigge (1773–1849), English banker * George Bigge (1869–1935), English cricketer and British Army of ...

to Olpe branches off here and it was also the start of the Finnentrop–Wennemen railway, which was closed in 1996. It is classified by

Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...

as a category 4 station.

History

Finnentrop station was established during the construction of the Ruhr–Sieg line from 1858 to 1861 and the station buildings were completed in 1860. Located in the village of Neubrucke, it was called Finnentrop after a nearby estate and the district was given the same name in 1908. The first entrance building was built in 1870. This was replaced by a new building in 1898 because of increasing traffic and then served until its demolition in 1937 as housing for railway families. A locomotive depot was built in the 1870s in conjunction with the building of the branch lines to Olpe and Wennemen. However, only one locomotive was stationed there in 1892. Together with Altenhundem, the station gradually developed into one of the operating centres of the Ruhr–Sieg line. In 1914, after the closure of an on-site locomotive depot at the Finnentrop steel works in 1901, the station’s locomotive depot became an independent depot. In the First World War, a field kitchen was set up next to the station and a medical team was established in the station waiting room. After World War II, 660 people were employed at the station. In 2002, the Deutsche Bahn AG installed a ticket machine in the station building. Two years later, the municipality took over the building. As part of the modernisation program for stations, North Rhine-Westphalia invested about €1 million in the remodeling of the station. In late 2007, during the first phase the station building was demolished and the station forecourt was completely redesigned. A citizens' initiative had previously made proposals for new uses of the building. A new platform access bridge with elevators was erected, the three platforms were raised to 76 cm high and a multi-use platform was built: buses now stop directly opposite the trains now, making a barrier-free transition possible. Further work on the island platforms and on the new pedestrian bridge began in 2015. They were raised and renewed in the southern area. Lifts were installed to the pedestrian overpass on the main platform and on the large island platform. This work was finished in 2017.

Infrastructure

A four road roundhouse was built in 1874. It was expanded after World War II. Around 1921, a 20-metre

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

was added. It was partially destroyed in 1944 and it was closed in 1982. On 6 February 2010, the roundhouse collapsed, when it was overloaded with snow. The carriage-maintenance facility, which had developed after the First World War was also closed. The walls of the roundhouse, however, have been retained. The depot also had a decontamination facility for cleaning and disinfecting livestock wagons. The first mechanical signal box (code name: ''Fr'') was commissioned at the marshalling yard in 1913 and three more were subsequently commissioned: ''Fs'' in 1924, ''Ff'' in 1928 and ''Fn'' in 1937. In 2002, the last three were replaced by an

electronic interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...

built by Siemens. The raised signal box ''Ff'', which is heritage-listed but threatened by demolition, is still preserved and the ''Fn'' and ''Fs'' signal boxes are heritage-listed by the municipality of Finnentrop.

Operations

Finnentrop station is served by the following passenger services: *

Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

34 towards

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

and

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

(also operates as RE 34, Dortmund–Siegerland-Express, between Dortmund and

) * Regionalbahn service RB 91 ( Ruhr-Sieg-Bahn) towards Hagen and Siegen and * Regionalbahn service RB 92 ( Biggesee-Express) towards Olpe. Several regional bus lines operate from the adjacent central bus station.

Notes

References

* (revised version of Robert J. Sasse)

External links

Station forecourt webcam
* {{Portal bar, Transport, North Rhine-Westphalia Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia Railway stations in Germany opened in 1861 1861 establishments in Prussia Olpe (district)